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Expert guide to Verbier

Verbier’s pistes are classified as 43 per cent easy, 29 per cent intermediate and 28 per cent advanced, but confident and adventurous skiers and snowboarders will get the most out of a visit. The resort’s ice-cream-scoop of a mountain bowl is perfectly oriented to the south, so virtually the whole ski area enjoys sunshine all day, as well as views towards the glaciated peaks along the borders with France and Italy.

Experts comes to Verbier not only for its black runs, and unmarked off-piste runs to explore with a mountain guide, but for the itinéraires, off-piste runs that are shown on the map in yellow and, like normal off piste, neither groomed nor patrolled. They are often heavily mogulled, but anyone tackling them should have training and experience in off-piste skills and safety, and stay close to the markings (a single line of posts down the centre).

Verbier’s most notorious and challenging itinéraire, unofficially called Tortin, looms large in Verbier après banter. Starting directly below the Chassoure gondola, it is one of two itinéraires descending to the lift hub at Tortin 2,050m. The upper slope is usually a vast expanse of moguls – from the gondola, it looks as though the mountain has goosebumps.

Gentianes-Tortin starts below Col des Gentianes at 2,950m. It's a guaranteed adrenalin rush to descend the steep, usually very bumpy Mont Fort black run from the top of the Mont Fort cable car, the highest point of the ski area at 3,330m, then schuss past the little drag lift to join the itinéraire to Tortin – more than a vertical kilometre of descent in all. There is detailed information on itinéraires in the Freeride Verbier book, available from the tourist office.

Piste wise, the majority of visitors spend most of their time on the main network directly above Verbier, served by the Médran gondola from town. This spaghetti of reds is a glorious intermediate playground, but even cautious beginners should ride up to access a couple of scenic blues higher up. From the top of Mont Fort there is only the black run and serious off-piste runs to be tackled with a guide, but everyone – non-skiers included – should ride the sequence of gondolas and cable cars to 3,330m for the views.

The gentle, sunny bowl of La Chaux, before the top of the area, is popular with families and beginners. There’s also a terrain park here that has three routes (blue, red, black) with jumps and rails of varying difficulty, plus a giant airbag and a thrilling snow cross run.

During school holidays, queues build up at the Médran gondola at around 9am. Those not staying close to Médran may be better off taking a shuttle bus to Carrefour, a roundabout and restaurant of the same name near the top of the Le Rouge button lift, to access the fast Mayentzet six-seater to the mid-mountain hub of Ruinettes.

The Savoleyres area lies north of Verbier. The journey here from central Verbier is slow – 10 minutes by bus, and 12 more on a rickety old gondola, Verbier’s most protracted ride. But the reward is an extensive network of blues and reds shared between a sunny bowl above Verbier and the forested slopes behind, which lead down to the smaller resort of La Tzoumaz. The Savoleyres runs are quieter than those directly above Verbier, and the north-facing tree runs down to La Tzoumaz are the best place to go on low-visibility days. An Audiquattro Funslope opened here for the 2015/16 season – a fun run for all levels with elements such as tunnels, banks, gates and small jumps.

Those confident on the slopes should allow a couple of days to explore the further reaches of the 4 Valleys ski area – one for Thyon and Veysonnaz, and another for Nendaz. The routes to get there do include ungroomed itinéraires, but non-experts can always ride a cable car or gondola down instead.

For all levels, a half day is well spent exploring Bruson. It’s reached by taking the gondola from Verbier down to Le Châble, and riding up the other side on a gondola that opened for the 2013/14 season to replace a tedious bus journey and snail-slow chair. The gondola made this once-underused area much more accessible. Higher up, there’s still just one slow chair and one T-bar, but the small network of scenic, tree-lined runs and a long itinéraire are well worth the schlep.

Verbier has two options for beginners. Les Moulins is a junior slope near the town centre with a magic carpet and a drag lift. It’s home to the kids’ club run by the Swiss Ski School and a crèche, also called Les Moulins. The main beginners’ slope, Les Esserts, just above town, has the same set-up on a bigger scale. A red piste through the forest leads here from the Savoleyres area, but there’s no piste leading to Les Esserts from the main Verbier ski area – the only access is by shuttle bus. From the bottom of Les Esserts, a synthetic ski track across the road leads to a handy narrow trail through the chalets to the bottom of the Le Rouge lift from town.